Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Outsiders.

DUDES, sorry for the delay. I'm having a few rough weeks. I'm not sure when I can update again, sorry L

-Kathrine

(Language, violence for warning)

Keep Moving

More Trouble

Two in the fucking morning. It has only been seventeen days that I've been working at this little diner and they already have me on night shift. It's bullshit is what it is! I'm serving coffee to bums who are too drunk to go home or have been kicked out of their homes. I can't wait until my shift ends at three. Tiredly I leaned on the counter top, ignoring the tightness that rubbed around my stomach while I did so. These uniforms are ridiculous, I can't bend down or everyone would see my underwear. And Lora said the uniforms were the best part. Like I said, bullshit. Now my eyelids were fighting to stay open.

"Lucy!" Lora screamed into my ear. "No sleeping yet! Our shift isn't over."

Even though I love Lora for all she's worth for giving me a job, I can't stand her sometimes. She's so loud, even when she quiet. She's just one of those kind of people, I suppose its nice to have around when you have to stay awake at two in the morning. Her mentioning the end of our shift just made me want to leave more. Lora's slender fingers lightly slapped my face to get my attention.

"Thank God I have off tomorrow. I don't think I could come in at noon to work." she laughed at me."You're usually the one without a problem staying awake, what's up?"

"Haven't slept the last few days, but right now I think I could sleep on a lit stove I'm so tired." she laughed her breathy laugh again. The man in the corner was snoring with his cup of coffee still in his hand. His head rested on the tabletop, next to his cold cup of coffee. Lora looked at me and motioned with her head to him with annoyed face. Groaning outwardly, she walked over to his table. Nudging him with her finger, he stirred but didn't wake.

"Sir!" Lora said loudly, the man at the counter turned around like she was addressing him. The man at the counter looked towards me in question. Shrugging to him, I shook myself awake a little. This definitely wasn't going to turn out well. Looking towards me, Lora threw her thumb at the guy with disgust. With a disappointed shake of her head, she slammed her hand down onto the table.

"What the fuck?" he mumbled. "Bitch why'd you wake me?" the man looked at Lora with a death glare. I took notice of his blood shot eyes, greasy hair, tattered clothes, and mud stained fingers nails. The man clenched and unclenched his fist on the table to control himself. My breathe hitched, throwing adrenaline into my veins. Something was going to happen and my body was getting ready for it. Lora didn't back down to his glare, she even leaned forward into his face with her own colorful sneer.

"Sir, I'm sorry but we are closing in a few minutes. We don't tolerate sleepers, this isn't a hotel."

"Bitch, this is a public place! I can sleep if I please." the angry man purposely spilled the rest of his coffee on to the table top. Standing up straight again, Lora made a surprised expression. Her blond eyebrows seemed to disappear behind her bangs from the shook.

Shutting her eyes patiently, she sighed at him. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I don't give a shit what you have to ask me." he mutteredd standing up."Sir, please be…" quickly the man grabbed her by her neck. Her little hands reached up around his wrist, trying to pull him away from her. In a smooth motion, I swung myself over the counter. With my feet, I swiftly struck him in the face. He was knocked down, pulling Lora with him. The man had a strong grip on her, not letting her go. He felt his nose with his free hand, pulling it away to look at the sight of blood.

My chest huffed up and down while I stared down at him. I waited for him to make a move. When he didn't do anything but look at me, I twisted around to look at the man at the counter. His eyes were bigger than plates while he looked at me. My finger pointed to him quickly, shouting out an order.

"Call the police now!" he quickly shuffled around to the back of the counter. The man fumbled with the phone, scared out of his mind I'm sure.

The man on the ground had let go of Lora when I looked back. She was chocking on the ground, searching for the right amount of air. My eyes trailed the worn out boots of the man to his pissed off expression. When he threw a punch at me, I blocked it but got hit with his right. Thinking fast, I kneed him in the groin. As he gasped out, I shoved him onto the ground. Getting on top of him, I repeatedly shoved his head into the floor. He punched and scratched at me with little effort. After banging his head for a fourth time, he punched me in the ribs. The wind was knocked out of me but I quickly recovered with a deep breath.

He growled at me and shoved me up. Again he punched me in the ribs, causing my almost healed cut to reopen wider than it was before. I called out in pain, he took this as an advantage. This time his fist connected to my cheek, cutting it deeply. My head was blurry and shaky so I stumbled back. When my eyes refocused, Lora came into view. She had grabbed a napkin holder in both hands. With a battle screech, she knocked him on the head. Over and over again she would swing the napkin holder back. Finally the man fell hard to the ground. Just as he did, the police pulled up with red and blue lights surrounding the small diner.

Lora threw the napkin holder at the man's crotch as she jumped over him. She came up next to me and leaned into me as if he would get up. I let her cling to me because it gave me a steady thing to lean on. My face screamed pain as it bled onto my horribly tight uniform. The blood from my face mixed in with the blood seeping from my wound on my side. Casually I threw my arm around Lora's shoulders as the police began to take the man in hand cuffs. The adrenaline in my veins still shook my body awake, even if it yelled for sleep to come.

Lora looked at me, realizing I was bleeding. Her hands went up to her face as she backed away from me. I tried to hold onto her because my body would surely fall from exhaustion. When it didn't, I shuffled to sit on a stool. As I leaned my back against the counter, I smirked at Lora tiredly.

"Mickey better give us a raise for this." Lora's worried face stayed concerned but she laughed despite the worry.

"Speaking of Mickey, you should go call him." I said motioning to the phone. "He would want to know what's going on. Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, are you? Hey, that was quick thinking. How the hell did you do that kick thing? It was incredible." Lora was already back to her old self, speaking very loudly and forgetting the seriousness of some situations.

"I've done gymnastics before, it was just a reaction I guess." I commented feeling the fall of the adrenaline as it seeped away from my blood. Paramedics came in behind the man that had called the police. He pointed wordlessly to my bleeding self. They immediately tackled me with all sorts of professional medical equipment. Lora nodded to me as she moved to call Mickey.

"Hey, it's cool." I told the male paramedic. "Just a few scratches. No need to freak friend."

He took a slow breathe, closing his eyes. "Sorry, it's one of my first shifts."

"It's okay." I said leaning against the counter more. "All I need is a stitch up and a ride home."

"We have to take you to the hospital to get stitches." I closed my eyes. Shit, I knew this was going to be trouble. We don't have the money to get stitches down at the hospital, fucking shit.

"Damn, screw that." I said standing up. "Lora give me a ride home, I can stitch myself there." Lora quickly said goodbye to Mickey and ran towards the door. She blocked my exit, I closed my tired eyes at her.

"Not a good idea Lucy. If it's the expense, Dad said to send the bill to him." I sighed. It probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to stitch myself anyway, I'm too tired. As for Mickey paying, that does give me the opportunity to go through with it. I suppose I should listen to them."Besides, the police still need to talk to us."

"What a drag." I muttered under my breathe. "I knew this night was going to suck."

I turned towards the paramedics that were standing behind me to make sure I didn't leave. "Lets get this over with so I can go home."

They nodded and everyone was off towards the hospital. Lora followed behind with her small little Mustang that her father, Mickey, had bought her. The police asked me about what happened, so I answered tiredly. Once at the hospital, I had to wait a good thirty minutes before they stitched me up. All the while they questioned Lora, our stories matched up well. Except hers were filled with nonsense sound effects. I smirked exhaustedly at her while she told them her version.

Once they were done with the thread inside my skin, they told me that my rib was cracked. The doctor said it was hard to tell bit it looked like it healed in a bad way the last time I had broken it. Now two of my ribs are prone to being broken unless they heal correctly and fully before the next time they crack. Before leaving and paying, they gave me a few pain pills. Just enough to get through the night. I took them right as we were leaving the hospital. I suppose I should of waited because they made me even more tired, if that was even possible.

Before I knew it, I was slumped over in the passenger side of Lora's Mustang. I didn't very much like Mustangs because they belonged to Socials, like Lora. She is a soc, but I don't care. As long as she doesn't care that I'm a greaser, we are pretty chill. She's a lot older than me though, I supposed that's why she doesn't care. I'm glad she doesn't, she become a good friend.

I was silent the way home, trying to stay awake until I got there. Lora helped by chatting my ear off, but it didn't do too much good. She thanked me for saving her ass. I told her not to worry about it; I didn't much care, I was just reacting. She waited to pull away until I made it to the door. I was moving very slowly because everything hurt now. The whole fight was catching up to me and the medication never really seemed to kick in. They just made me tired. In the dark of the house, I glanced at the couch. It was vacant, waiting for me. At that moment, I knew I wouldn't make it to my bed or my room.

Without much thought, I fell to the comfort of the couch. At first it was painful, so I adjusted to get comfortable. Since I wasn't really paying attention, I let myself groan without caring who heard. Finally, I settled for being on my side. It wasn't the best position, but it was better than suffocating on my stomach. As I laid there, I thought I would instantly fall asleep. But I didn't, all I did was listen to my brothers snore loudly to the dark house. My tired eyes glanced at the clock, it was already five.

Groaning in annoyance and pain, I fell into a half sleep. That kind of sleep where your eyes are closed and you body is resting but you can still hear everything going on around you. I wasn't all the way asleep, like my body needed me to be. When my body was slowly waking up, I felt the rays of the sun on my body. Probably coming from the window above the couch. I than noticed that I was laying on back with a blanket covering my sweaty body. Even if my body was facing up, my head was looking straight into the back of the couch. I could hear my brothers talking to some of the guys as they stood near by. They were talking about me, they had waken me up.

"What the hell is she doin' on the couch?" Two-bit chuckled out, knowing I hated sleeping out in the open like that.

"I found her there around six, so I covered her up. She must have been really tired, couldn't even make it to her bed." Darry's gentle voice was heard through all the louder ones. Steve laughed at Darry's softness.

"Well lets wake her up." he commented childishly. My body hurt like hell and when I tried to turn over to look at them, it wouldn't allow me to. Just as I was going to protest they leave me alone, a boney body pounced on me. Both my eyes shot open fully as I screeched at the pain. Immediately Steve jumped off me, as I squeezed my eyes shut. I rocked back and forth, trying to get up. Perhaps the pain would go away, it was the most I'd felt since being stabbed last year. I screamed out again; hot, painful tears flooded my eyes. My hands tried to cradle my side.

I felt all eyes on me as I screamed, cried, and shook in pain. Suddenly I felt the blanket get ripped off of me, Soda pushed Steve out of the way. Darry was the closest now, so I reached my hand up to him. I'm not one to whine but I haven't sleep well in three days, also I'm in pain.

"Darry." I whined trying to get up.

"Baby girl, what happened?" he helped me sit up. Taking deep breathes, I helped myself to stand up.

"I want to go to bed." I cried trying to get away from them. "It hurts. I'm tired. I want to go to bed."

Darry was about to say something, but Dally came crashing through the screen door. Him and Johnny were laughing about something or other. That laughter stopped in seeing me. Dally looked over at me, his eyes crazy with rage.

"Who the fuck did this?" I leaned into Darry, he looked down at me soothingly."Darry, I want to sleep." he nodded."Can you tell us why you look like you've been in a fight?"

"Because I have been. Can I please sleep?" I felt his arms wrap around me as everyone stared at me.

"With who?" just then, I felt the dizziness fumble through my head. My hands gripped onto Darry's shirt.

"Darry, I'm going to pass out." I muttered leaning on him more. Darry lifted up my body, crunching my ribs together. Without thinking, I screamed out again. Darry quickly set me down on the couch.

"Stay with us Luc." Pony said from the corner of the room.

"Lucy, you best tell us what happened." Dally commanded clenching his fist.

"I have some cracked ribs and he spilt my face open. They made me go to the hospital. He spilled his coffee. Lora woke him up. I want to sleep." I muttered in one breathe, it was all jumbled together.

"Lucy, that didn't make any sense." Soda commented rubbing my forehead with the back of his hand. I looked over at all my boys, they looked frightened and angry. Pony looked the most frightened, I waved him over. Slowly he made his way over to me.

"Hi baby boy." I soothed to him. He looked over to Soda like I was crazy.

"I think she needs to sleep before we get some real answers." Soda added after a few quiet moments.

"Call Mickey or Lora, they know." I said right before my lights where out. God, I get in so much shit!